Social justice Study Guide

📖 Core Concepts Social Justice: Fair distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges; protects individual rights. Human Rights & Equality: Foundations; every person entitled to basic rights regardless of background. Institutions' Role: Taxation, public health, education, labor law, market regulation → tools for equitable distribution. Social Determinants of Health: Access to health‑care, education, housing, and income shape health outcomes. Environmental/Climate Justice: Extends fairness to ecological harms; focuses on disproportionate impacts on marginalized groups. Decolonial Perspective: Calls out colonialism & white supremacy in traditional theories; stresses racial/colonial hierarchies. 📌 Must Remember Rawls’s Basic Liberties: Thought, conscience, political participation, association, personal integrity, rule‑of‑law protections. Pogge’s Negative Duty: Institutions must not harm the poor; corporate tax evasion is a rights violation. UN Definition (1969): Social justice underpins peaceful, prosperous coexistence among nations. Zakat (Islam): Mandatory almsgiving; a right of the poor to resources from the affluent. Hayek Critique: Calls social justice “meaningless” and a threat to liberty. Vienna Declaration (1993): Human‑rights education must include peace, democracy, development, and social justice. 🔄 Key Processes Assessing Health Inequities Identify disparities → link to racism, sex discrimination, class. Apply the Social Determinants of Health Model: ensure primary care access regardless of income, gender, education. Formulating Climate‑Justice Policies Map emissions → identify communities bearing the highest burden. Design redistributive measures (e.g., adaptation funding) to achieve intergenerational equity. Implementing Institutional Duties (Pogge) Audit global corporate structures → detect tax avoidance. Enforce negative duty: reform tax laws, allocate recovered revenues to poverty‑reduction programs. 🔍 Key Comparisons Rawls vs. Pogge – Rawls: Emphasizes inviolable individual rights & basic liberties. Pogge: Focuses on institutional harm‑prevention and global redistribution. Traditional Western Philosophy vs. Decolonial Critique – Traditional: Often ignores colonial legacies. Decolonial: Highlights racial hierarchies and demands reparative justice. Social Justice (Hayek) vs. Social Justice (Rawls) – Hayek: Views it as contradictory and liberty‑destroying. Rawls: Treats it as a fundamental right that structures a fair society. ⚠️ Common Misunderstandings “Social justice = wealth redistribution” – It also includes rights, opportunities, and procedural fairness, not just monetary transfers. “Environmental justice is only about pollution” – It also covers climate change impacts, resource allocation, and intergenerational equity. “Religious charity equals social justice” – Charity (e.g., zakat) is a right of the poor within a broader institutional framework of justice. 🧠 Mental Models / Intuition Justice as a Balance Scale – Imagine society as a scale: institutions (taxes, education) add weight to the lighter side (disadvantaged) to achieve balance. Negative Duty = “Do No Harm” – Treat institutions like doctors: they must first avoid causing injury before prescribing solutions. Intergenerational Equity = “Family Budget” – Allocate resources now without bankrupting future generations; same logic as a family saving for children’s education. 🚩 Exceptions & Edge Cases Cultural Variations: Some societies prioritize collective responsibility over individual liberty, altering the interpretation of “basic liberties.” Indigenous Rights: Standard redistribution policies may conflict with tribal sovereignty; justice requires tailored, consent‑based approaches. Emergency Situations: During pandemics, temporary restrictions on liberties may be justified, but must be proportionate and time‑limited. 📍 When to Use Which Rawlsian Framework → When evaluating basic liberties and institutional fairness within a single nation‑state. Pogge’s Institutional View → For global analyses of trade, tax, and corporate practices that affect the poor across borders. Decolonial Lens → When assessing policies that may perpetuate historic racial or colonial inequities. Hayek’s Critique → Useful for debates on economic liberty vs. redistribution; ask whether a proposal threatens market incentives. 👀 Patterns to Recognize “Disproportionate burden + minimal contribution” → Flag a climate‑justice issue. “Legal duty + negative duty” → Indicates Pogge‑style analysis. “Rights + procedural fairness” → Signals a Rawlsian argument. “Historical omission of colonial impact” → Signals a decolonial critique. 🗂️ Exam Traps Confusing “social justice” with “charity” – Answer choices that equate the two miss the institutional, rights‑based dimension. Selecting “Hayek is right” because it sounds logical – Remember exam focus is on defining social justice, not dismissing it. Choosing “environmental justice = only pollution control” – Overlooks climate‑justice and intergenerational equity components. Mixing Rawls’s “negative liberty” with Pogge’s “negative duty” – They refer to different concepts; watch for wording that blends them incorrectly. --- Use this guide to scan quickly before the exam—focus on the bolded keywords, the step‑by‑step processes, and the contrast bullets to spot the right answer fast.